PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Inspired by the centuries-old mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, The Town That Takes transforms one of America’s unsolved mysteries into a supernatural horror thriller steeped in Southern Gothic atmosphere, investigative suspense, and folklore. The film stars Miles Mussenden, Mike Markoff, Grace Patterson, and Britt Bankhead, who also directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Blaze. Bankhead and Patterson additionally served as executive producers on the project.
Ahead of the film’s theatrical release, Pop Horror spoke with Britt Bankhead and Grace Patterson about adapting the legend of Croatoan, balancing multiple creative roles, the influence of Native American lore, and what they hope audiences will take away after the credits roll.
The Mystery Behind The Town That Takes
PopHorror: So the Lost Colony of Roanoke has apparently fascinated people for centuries now. So what was it about that mystery that made you think it would become an effective supernatural horror film?
Britt Bankhead: I think the fact that nobody ever recovered the colony left a lot of freedom to do what you wanted with it. And I don’t think there’s been a movie like this made. So it was something fresh that we could do that wouldn’t be redundant, like a slasher or something like that.
PopHorror: Sure. And it’s a real-life story.
Britt Bankhead: It is. Those often bring more people. They were all gone. There’s just Croatoan carved in a tree. That has intrigued me for years. We started digging into the lore and there was this Native American lore about Wendigos and shapeshifters. So that’s the route we kind of went with.
PopHorror: So without giving away spoilers, how does The Town That Takes put its own spin on the legend instead of simply retelling some familiar folklore — or I suppose unfamiliar folklore?
Britt Bankhead: By using the Native American lore we went with. I don’t think anybody’s used that before. So we went into shapeshifters and Wendigos and stuff.
Grace Patterson: Yeah. So it’s got our take on what happened.
Britt Bankhead: Because a lot of scholars think that it was famine or disease or something that happened in this colony.
Bringing the Legend to the Screen
PopHorror: So what does Croatoan mean exactly?
Grace Patterson: Nobody knows. It was left carved in a tree when the colony was gone.
Britt Bankhead: Yeah. They came back and the colony was gone and there was just “Croatoan” carved into a tree. They don’t know what happened to them or anything.
PopHorror: So it could just be somebody’s random nickname or something.
Thank you. So Britt, you directed and co-wrote the film, and you of course acted in it as well. So what was the biggest challenge of balancing all those responsibilities, and did one role ever influence another on set?
Britt Bankhead: I would say it was just a lot of taskings, and as much as I wanted to be, I couldn’t be everywhere at once. I did my hardest, but there was a lot of grace from the cast and from our crew on that. But we made it through.
PopHorror: So Grace, you’re both a lead actor and an executive producer. So how involved were you in shaping the project? And what was your favorite aspect of your involvement?
Grace Patterson: Yeah, I was very involved because we’re also married. So at home, that was our life for pre-production. We were developing the project through production. We just lived and breathed this project, and then post-production, over a year, that was our whole lives too. So I was involved in every step, which was so much fun.
It was cool because I got a say in my character. They wanted St. Clair to be more of a seasoned detective, and I’m like, I think she should be green, but passionate. They took my notes on that, so it was kind of fun to have a lot of say-so. Then on set, when he was busy, everybody would come to me.
PopHorror: There are already some characters in the movie who do seem more seasoned, so it kind of offers a little contrast maybe.
Grace Patterson: Exactly. That’s what I kind of felt too. Then it was more fun for Miles to be the seasoned one and me to be the green one.
Building the Characters and Themes of The Town That Takes
PopHorror: A lot of horror movies use supernatural things as metaphors for real fears. So beyond the mystery, what themes or ideas were you hoping audiences would take away from the story?
Britt Bankhead: We honestly hope people leave and go into a deep dive looking at Croatoan.
Grace Patterson: Yeah. We were hoping people would message us their own theories of what happened and kind of give us their own take on it. It’s an interesting deep dive.
PopHorror: Have any people gotten back to you on any of these theories?
Grace Patterson: Really, no one’s seen the film yet. My own family has not seen the film. So we’re hoping that kind of starts after July 10th, or our premiere on July 7th. Only a select few people have seen the film so far, but we’re hoping they do.
Working Together On and Off Screen
PopHorror: There are all kinds of actors in the film — people who were in comic book adaptations, thrillers, and horror films. So when it comes to the chemistry, what were you aiming for between all those different actors?
Grace Patterson: I think the chemistry really came naturally to everybody. I had worked with Mike Markoff before, and then Miles — we met him on Zoom before — and he’s just so likable, so relatable, and so easy to get along with. Nico, we loved. We were really lucky in that aspect that nothing was forced. We really all did become like family. That part kind of landed naturally.
PopHorror: And I assume this movie didn’t cause a rift between you. You’re not getting a divorce or anything like that.
Grace Patterson: No, no. We had a lot of fun. We love working together.
Britt Bankhead: I think one of the things that was said was the next film’s a girl film.
Grace Patterson: Yeah, we’re going to do a military film. But I was like, I want to do a rom-com sometime. Because if Britt has a say, there’s going to be action and car flips. But yeah, we had a blast. We love working together.
PopHorror: Well, maybe you could have a rom-com with action scenes.
Grace Patterson: Right! Yeah. The lead guy will get into a fight, a couple of fights, a shootout.
From Script to Screen
PopHorror: What aspects of the legend found their way into the screenplay? And were there any parts of the legend that you decided to leave out?
Grace Patterson: Yeah, I definitely think the Skinwalkers are part of the lore, so we did do that. And the Wendigo— that was part of the lore, and that’s what we chose to focus on. We didn’t obviously leave the Croatoan carved into a tree. That part we did not do. So we kind of focused on those elements.
PopHorror: What was your favorite part of the story to film, to bring from script to the screen?
Grace Patterson: Probably the action stuff, right?
Britt Bankhead: Yeah, I think the car chase was that for me.
PopHorror: Were there memorable practical effects? What was your favorite in terms of the monsters?
Britt Bankhead: Yeah, we had so many practical effects with the bodies and the blood and the guts and all that stuff. The creature we used CGI on, but we had a really great artist who used to do practical effects. He worked on Tremors and did the creature design on that as well. He’s just rolled with the times and started doing VFX. We spent a lot of time talking to him about how we were going to do this creature, going back and forth on what a Wendigo should look like and what it shouldn’t look like. We probably spent about a year doing that.
Looking Beyond the Mystery
PopHorror: One thing I will say is that the fight scene in the jail looked pretty realistic to me. I was actually surprised by that. Even in some movies I love, I have to roll my eyes because you can tell the punches are fake. I’ll use A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 as an example. That’s one of my favorite movies of all time, but there’s a scene where Freddy Krueger punches a character in the face and it just looks fake. I thought this fight scene looked more realistic. So how much planning went into that? Or was there real fighting going on?
Grace Patterson: Only a couple people went to the hospital.
(Laughs.)
No, really, they just showed up, knew the choreography, they taught Britt what they needed to, and rolled right into it.
Britt Bankhead: Some of the guys we cast as the cops are actually stunt guys in real life. They’re stunt actors, and that helped a lot.
PopHorror: When audiences leave the theater—or get done watching it on their small screen—do you think they’re going to look into this Croatoan mystery, or do you think they’re just going to think about the movie itself?
Grace Patterson: I hope a little bit of both. It’s always great if people like your movie and think about it. That would be awesome. Honestly, we hope both.
Final Thoughts
PopHorror: Is there anything else you would like to say about this movie, about the cast or anything like that?
Britt Bankhead: Incredible talent. Our actors—Mike, Miles, Nico—we loved working with them. We’d love to do a lot more projects with them.
Grace Patterson: Yeah. A lot of hard work went into this project. On an indie film, it’s really all hands on deck. So we really would love people to go see it. You can go to thetalentthattakes.com to find a theater near you on July 10th or request it to be in a theater near you. Otherwise, it’ll be on streaming a little bit after that.
